BORREGOSPRINGS-- Just off a dirt road in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is
a place where it seems like the Earth itself is sighing.

The gentle chorus of rushing air that county
hydrologist John Peterson hears at the head of a 400-foot well there
is the sound of a half-century of exploitation of the valley's most
vital resource.

"The underground water level is being drawn down,
and the well is sucking in air to replace the water," he said. "We
have been monitoring wells in the Borrego Valley since 1982, and
water levels are falling significantly."

Mark Jorgensen,
senior ecologist at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, said the lack
of water is killing desert lants, including this honey mesquite.
Photo by Scott Linnett

Except for a few rare years of heavy rain, this
desert crossroads has been voraciously gulping down its precious
water supply -- 90 percent of which goes to irrigate crops and keep
local golf courses green.

Now, some residents fear this relentless
consumption is pulling the valley closer to a potential crisis of
fallow fields, damage to the desert ecosystem, salty water flowing
from spigots, and dashed dreams of big-time tourism blossoming in
this town with no stoplights.

The vast water basin that lies beneath the
140-square-mile Borrego Valley could be considered a desert
miracle.

The basin of relatively pure water is under a
remote valley where rainfall hovers around 3 to 4 inches per year,
and average summer temperatures exceed 105 degrees.

Composed of gravel and fractured rocks, the basin
holds much less water than a lake of its size. But it is
immense.

Tens of thousands of Qualcomm Stadiums could fit
inside it. The basin collects rainwater from a mountain watershed of
450 square miles. The water enters the basin in a trickle.

Federal hydrologists estimate that, when growers
and developers began to aggressively pump it in the early 1940s, the
basin probably held more than 5 million acre-feet of water -- more
than 10 times as much water as urban San Diego County imports each
year to meet about 80 percent of its water demand.

An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough for
the domestic use of two average families for one year.

Since the 1950s, however, much more water has been
pumped out of the basin -- for crops and golf courses and to slake
people's thirst -- than has trickled into it.

The water level in the well that Peterson visits
in the state park has fallen about 30 feet over the past 13 years, he
said.

The same tumbling line can be seen on charts
recording levels at monitoring wells across the valley, and this
means that water levels also are falling in nearly all of the
valley's 85 active wells, he said.

Not this year. Not next. Maybe not in 20 years.
But at some foreseeable time, water from the underground basin is
expected to become difficult and costly to pump, and to become more
heavily laden with salt and other plant-killing minerals.

What makes the problem potentially critical is
that no other water supply is available to this isolated area. And
projects to secure and import water from elsewhere often take a
decade or more to complete.

"We have ranchers in this
valley who are using 50 gallons per day per tree on citrus
trees....It's madness" Don Robidoux, co-owner of
the Borrego Valley Inn

The desert environment already may be a casualty,
said Mark Jorgensen, senior ecologist at Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park.

He said sinking water tables are leaving some
desert trees literally high and dry.

"A mesquite forest is showing what many of us
consider very high levels of mortality, and some of these individual
trees that are dying are hundreds of years old," Jorgensen
said.

"Even though it has among the deepest roots of any
plant in the world, going down 100 feet or more, this is a sign that
the ground-water basin is declining faster than the trees can keep up
with it."

Original Springs GoneMeanwhile, the original springs that gave
Borrego Springs its name -- a hand-dug well used by the Spanish De
Anza expedition to water its stock in 1774 -- are long gone, as are
many more recent springs, Jorgensen said.

Valley tourism has not withered for lack of inexpensive
ground water, but Don Robidoux, co-owner of the Borrego
Valley Inn, fears it might.

"Here we have all these signs that the water is
decreasing, and we have ranchers in this valley who are
using 50 gallons per day per tree on citrus trees," he
said.

"They have been doing this for 50 years," he said. "It's
madness. Sooner or later we are going to have to face the
reality that this can't continue."

Others believe the enormous underground basin still
contains plenty of water, so there is time to make a master
ground-water plan, and no need for radical conservation
measures.

"In my well, the water has been going down a foot to a
foot and a half every year, but we have about 700 to 800
feet of water below that, so we aren't going to get too
excited about it," said Sam Fortiner, a director of the
Borrego Water District who farms 415 acres of citrus
crops.

Water in Fortiner's well has fallen from 170 feet below
the surface in the 1940s to about 300 feet today, he
said.

"No one really knows until you poke a hole in the ground,
but I am guessing that the bottom is around 1,000 feet, and
that there is about 700 feet of water left there. Just how
good it will be is something else. As it draws down, I would
expect higher salinity."

Image by Brian
Cragin

Lower CostThere's no financial reason to use less
water, he maintains.

It costs growers such as Fortiner about $80 per
acre-foot to pump irrigation water that farmers closer to the coast
buy for $350 to $500 per acre-foot."It isn't a crisis at all at this
state of affairs," he said.

Spectacular sunsets and crystal-clear vistas that
draw the eye for miles have always enticed visitors and retirees to
Borrego Springs.

That's one big reason the valley's planning group
envisions a tourism mecca here in 20 years, with about 12,000
permanent residents -- four times the current population.

"We have literally not scratched the surface in
terms of our tourist potential," said Linda Nordstrand, outgoing
president of the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce. "If you don't
have water, you don't have tourists. It is an issue that just has to
be dealt with."

But how?

The Borrego Water District, which covers about 43
percent of the valley and serves nearly all of its homes, has
launched a two-year planning effort to study the basin and ways to
bring in water from nearby areas to replenish it.

This will not be easy.

One big reason is that the water district has no
authority over the private wells that irrigate valley citrus groves
and fairways -- and account for 90 percent of the valley's water
use.

Last year, some 22,297 acre-feet of water were
pumped from underground and consumed in the valley -- two to four
times the amount of water believed to seep into the aquifer each
year.

Borrego
ValleyInn owner Don
Robidoux, standing next to a grove of grapefruit trees just
north of downtown Borrego Springs, said he was worried that the
large amount of water used to irrigate citrus trees was
depleting the water table under the desert community.
Photo by Scott Linnett

The "fossil water" being pumped out of the basin
could have rested among the aquifer's deep, porous rocks for as long
as 14,000 years, state officials say.

Irrigated plants in the desert require much more
water than plants in cooler climates because the high heat and strong
sun cause water to evaporate much faster.

The citrus trees that carpet the northern end of
the valley, and make up about half of the valley's 4,300 acres of
crops, are water-intensive plants, according to the U.S. Natural
Resources Conservation Service.

Mature citrus trees need 45 to 50 gallons each per
day in the summer in Borrego's desert climate, and a yearly average
of around 30 gallons each per day, the service says.

The 400 acres of turf that cover golf courses in
the valley consume as much as or more water per acre than citrus
trees, the service said.

"Turf is the worst crop you could possibly grow in
a desert area," said Carl Hauge, chief state hydrologist.

Even so, the valley's most recent golf course
development, the Borrego Springs Resort, has computerized temperature
and heat monitors that shave water use as much as 30 percent, said
co-owner John Cameron.

Other Courses"When the humidity or other aspects of the
weather change, it automatically changes the sprinkler system" to
reduce consumption, he said.

Other golf courses in the valley could install
similar systems, but they would have to weigh the costs against
revenues in a competitive golfing market, Cameron said.

He agreed with Fortiner that the ground-water
basin is not close to being exhausted.

"We are drilling one well right now and hitting
water at a little over 100 feet, and we have drilled down to 700 feet
and still get very good water quality," he said.

"It is still cheaper water than practically
anyplace."

And, he said, this water supports 75 jobs at the
resort and hotel, and will make it possible to build 840 homes on
1,100 acres surrounding the course.

The opinions of growers and golf course operators
are going to be important because, to be effective, a new
ground-water plan is likely to need their agreement and
participation.

For the Borrego Water District, finding a new
water supply to replenish the ground-water basin promises to be just
as difficult as finding a consensus about the valley's water
use.

And Borrego 's 3,000 permanent residents may find
it difficult to afford whatever project is launched to bring in more
water.

No Such AuthoritySome desert districts, such as the
Coachella Valley Water District, are empowered by state law to tax
wells on private property and levy pumping fees to finance pricey
projects to restore their ground-water basins.

But the Borrego Water District has no such
authority. It would have to ask growers' permission.

Fortiner predicted their reaction. "They wouldn't
like it," he said.

Peterson, the county hydrologist, looked on the
bright side.

"I think they have made great strides in Borrego,
No. 1, in admitting they have a problem. We have spent 10 years
trying to get the valley to that point, and now there is a
consensus," he said.

"Everybody is using a common pool of water, and
the residents should not be pointing a finger at agriculture or the
golf courses."

In 1984, a state report suggested bringing in
water from the Colorado River, but river entitlements shared by seven
Western states already total more than the river's long-term average
flow. California is under pressure to cut back its use of river
water.

The Borrego district is considering tapping water
under Clark Dry Lake to the east, but there's a catch. Early tests
suggest that this water is nearly twice as salty as the
ocean.

It could cost $13 million to obtain about 4,000
acre-feet of this water, a study says. The cost of pumping and
desalting it, and piping and pumping it to where it would be used,
would jack up its price to six or seven times what the district
currently pays.